After reading the list, I was very surprised! And I definitely remember from my childhood almost all these plants and they collected and smelled and almost chewed. They grow everywhere almost underfoot and even in cities!
Anecdote on the topic:
A drug addict sits near a bush and eats berries. A girl approaches him:
- Uncle, what are you? These are wolf berries!
- Nothing, the wolves will find themselves.
So what is considered dangerous from plants …
1. Belladonna (lat. Atrópa belladónna)
Promotional video:
Can a plant with such a poetic name be dangerous to humans? And how! "The beautiful lady" - this is how belladonna is translated from Italian - is very insidious. Its fruit is a shiny black, sometimes yellow berry with many seeds, infused with a sweet-tasting dark purple nectar, but it is not worth tasting.
Italian women traditionally buried the juice of this plant in their eyes: the pupils, due to the atropine content in belladonna, expanded, acquiring an unnatural but attractive shine. And the berries were used as a dye to create a blush on the cheeks.
In Russia, belladonna was also called "belladonna", but sometimes it was also called "rabies": the same atropine, when ingested inside the plant, could cause strong excitement, up to rabies. But this is not the main symptom. 20 minutes after tasting the leaves or the fruit of belladonna, dryness and burning occur in the mouth, swallowing and breathing are difficult, heart rate increases, then vomiting, stool and urination disorder appear.
A person can also be poisoned by honey, which contains belladonna pollen, moreover, toxic effects are manifested even from touching this plant. The livestock eating it suffers from belladonna, but the rabbits feast on it with absolutely no consequences.
2. Spotted hemlock (lat. Conium maculatum)
It doesn't just give a headache - in the ancient Greek justice system, hemlock was used as an official poison, and only since the time of Hippocrates has it become a medicine. All parts of the plant are equally poisonous, and therefore it is recommended to collect it with extreme caution. Washing hands with soap is the best prevention against its toxic properties. The finished raw materials must always be stored separately from other medicinal herbs.
In Russia, this weed grows everywhere - from forest edges to vegetable gardens. Children sometimes make whistles from its hollow stem, which is extremely dangerous. However, the unpleasant "mouse" smell of hemlock often scares them away from this activity.
3. Daphne (lat. Dáphne)
In childhood, many of us were warned against eating such attractive-looking wolf berries, and for good reason - 5 berries can become a lethal dose for a child, and 12 will calmly send an adult to the next world. But even if you do not overdo it with the dose, then the poison of the wolfberry can cause redness of the skin and blisters, as well as kidney and stomach diseases.
In spring, the "wolf bast" bush is decorated with delicate flowers - pink, cream and lilac shades, but their beauty is deceiving - flower pollen can cause dizziness and headache. It is curious that in Nepal, the highest grade paper is made from wolfberry, and in our country it is used for landscaping. The wolfberry is listed in the Red Book of Russia: a plant that poses a danger to people is itself on the verge of extinction.
4. Belena (Latin Hyoscýamus)
We often heard the common expression: "Are you overeating henbane?" So they say about a person who behaves inappropriately. Even Avicena wrote that "henbane is a poison that causes insanity, deprives memory and causes suffocation and demoniacal possession."
Helen is a very unpretentious plant - it has chosen wastelands, courtyards, vegetable gardens and roadsides, there is a lot of it where a person lives. The plant has a very unpleasant odor, at the sea, animals are sensitive to it and bypass the bleached side.
Albrecht Durer, Knight, Death and the Devil, engraving 1513-1514
In the Middle Ages, there was such a military trick. The retreating army left its wine supply to the enemy, having previously mixed henbane there. The enemy, of course, could not help but take advantage of such a gift and drank the poisoned wine. Later, the soldiers returned to their possessions and massacred the intoxicated enemies.
In henbane everything is toxic - the root, stem, flowers, but especially the seeds. First of all, children who mistake these seeds for edible can be at risk.
5. Milestone poisonous (lat. Cicuta virosa)
The name of this plant speaks for itself. In Russia, it is found everywhere, especially near water bodies. The main danger is tubers that have a deceptively pleasant smell of either carrots or celery. The main milestone substance is cicutoxin, which in small doses has a sedative effect, and also lowers blood pressure - it is not without reason that it is used in pharmacology.
In folk medicine, a milestone tincture is made, which has a number of useful properties: it helps with migraines, gout, rheumatism, tachycardia. However, an overdose of a drug based on a milestone is fraught with serious consequences - headache, chills, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, convulsions, profuse salivation, and if the stomach is not rinsed in time can be fatal very quickly.
Death of Socrates, Jacques-Louis David, canvas 1787.
Due to their toxicity, landmarks are also used as an insecticide in the fight against garden pests - caterpillars and insects. And not only. According to some reports, Socrates was poisoned with a poison made from this plant.
6. Wrestler or aconite (Latin Acónítum)
The name "aconite" is associated with the feat of Hercules, in which he freed the three-headed Cerberus from the underworld. When the hero brought the hellish dog into the light of day, the beast flooded the grass with poisonous saliva - and tall, slender plants grew there. It happened near the city of Akoni.
In Russia, there are more than 60 types of aconite, and it is actively used in folk medicine. Everything except the root is used to prepare the preparations - it is so poisonous! Children are very often attracted by the beautiful flowers of aconite, which they taste - burning pain and numbness in the mouth can appear in a few minutes.
Facts speak about the fighter's poisonous properties: the Germanic peoples rubbed the arrowheads with them to hunt wolves, and the skullcap soaked in his juice killed Tamerlane. For any person, a 2-3 gram dose of aconite will be fatal.
7. Ash tree (lat. Dictamnus)
During its flowering period, the ash tree is unusually beautiful. Large white, pink, lilac flowers with purple veins will not leave anyone indifferent. And when the fruits appear - five-celled capsules with shiny black seeds - a rather pungent aroma spreads around the ash tree, similar to the smell of orange peel. It smells like essential oils.
They say that if you bring a lighted match to a plant on a windless sunny day, a red-purple flame will flash around it, but the plant itself will remain untouched by the fire. So he was nicknamed by the people "the burning bush."
Despite the beauty of the ash tree, you should never touch or even smell the flowers and seed boxes! At first, a person will not feel anything, but after a day, a burn occurs at the place of touch, which can be replaced by long non-healing ulcers - a trace of them will remain forever. And the contact of an ash tree with a large area of the body is fraught with a risk to life. In our opinion, this is the most dangerous plant in Russia.